Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Lakers get upset in Utah

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Competing in their last game before the All-Star break, the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t have played any worse than they did Wednesday night in Utah as the Jazz upset the favored Lakers 131-119. Lauri Markkanen led Utah with 32 points, while Keyonte George added 20 off the bench. The Lakers were led in the loss by Rui Hachimura’s 19 points, LeBron James' 18, and Luka Doncic’s 16. The Lakers will return to action on February 19th, when they host the Charlotte Hornets.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers vs Utah Jazz Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!WAYFAIRAfter the holiday hustle, there’s nothing like giving your home a little TLC. I always find that decluttering and refreshing my space helps me get back into a routine.Whether you’re tidying up, clearing out, or just want to give your space a new look to start the year, Wayfair has everything you need – all within your budget.I’m currently looking for furniture and their huge selection makes it easy to find pieces that fit my style and budget. My favorite part? The free and hassle-free delivery, even for the larger items. Wayfair’s site was so easy to navigate, and I found everything I needed in no time.● There’s something for every style and every home, no matter your space or budget.● Wayfair makes it easy to tackle your New Year’s home goals with endless inspiration for every space and● What is your decor style? Why did you pick these items? What do you love about them?● How did your item look in your home? What do you use it for? How does the new item make you feel?● Did Wayfair help you out in a time crunch? Was the delivery free, fast, hassle-free?Give your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair dot com right now. That’s W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. OPEN PHONERunning a small business means you’re wearing a lot of hats. Your personal phone becomes your business phone, and before you know it, you’re juggling customer calls day and night. As your team grows, it becomes impossible to manage everything with just your personal number. That’s where OpenPhone comes in. It’s the #1 business phone system designed to help you keep your work and personal life separate.For just $15 a month—the cost of a few coffees—you get complete transparency and visibility into everything happening with your business phone number. OpenPhone works through an app on your phone or computer and integrates with tools like Hubspot and hundreds of others. It also uses AI-powered call transcripts and summaries, so you’ll have a rundown of your calls and action items the second you hang up. And if you miss a call? No problem. Automated messages are sent directly to your customer, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to engage.Right now, OpenPhone is offering 20% off your first 6 months when you go to OpenPhone.com/LOCKEDONNBA.That’s O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E dot com slash LOCKEDONNBA for 20% off 6 months.OpenPhone.com/LOCKEDONNBA—and if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are a Locked-on Lakers Postcast, part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, it's a bad night in Utah. Here it is. The Lakers that come out flat on defense. They lose Jackson Hayes early and struggle in the paint. And we reviewed the second game with LeBron James and Luca in the same lineup. We talked about all of it on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

Thank you so much for joining me tonight on a disappointing night. disappointing as the Lakers lose a game. They definitely should have won when looking at the schedule. 131, 119 to the Utah Jazz. Again, Utah, one of the worst teams in the NBA, and for the Lakers to play their final game before the All-Star break, very disappointing. I understand the team had a six-game winning streak heading in, and they were playing great basketball. I mean, just to refresh where the Lakers were at, the Lakers had won six in a row, 10 of their last 11, 12 of their last 14, and then they lose to a team like the Utah Jazz, a team that they just crushed a couple nights. ago. And there are many reasons why this happened. And we'll talk about what is next for the

Lakers and how do they fix it. But right now they head into the All-Star break. So the Lakers next game will be a week from today when they host the Charlotte Hornets and the makeup game. Of course, the makeup game because of the fires. But for the Lakers, they have a week off. And it's not like they have a week off where they're going to get a chance to practice and iron a bunch of stuff out. It's a week off for the Lakers where guys are going to be traveling back to their hometowns, maybe going on a trip. But just to get away. from basketball for a little bit. So how much can JJ Redick and his staff do to basically focus on things to get them in the right position to make a run in these last 30 games? This was a very

disappointing loss. At this point of the season when the Lakers are chasing still in the standings and wanting to be where they want to be, meaning a top four team in the standings, this is the kind of loss you can't have. And it's one of those where you scratch your head and you go, why did this happen tonight? Well, there are many reasons why it happened tonight. A lot of it has to do with a lot of new players, a lot of new guys basically in position to sit there and pick up the pieces. And we know there are guys that were out. So let's get into that right away. So here we are. The Lakers, again, the starting five is Jackson Hayes, Rui, Austin Reeves, LeBron, and Luca. You feel pretty good with that starting five. Then you miss Dorian Finney Smith, who's out

and Gabe Vincent has been playing great basketball off the bench. And they don't have either one of those guys who really are important to this team, especially Dorian Finney spent defensively, Gabe Vincent adding that spark off the bench. And all of a sudden, you lose Jackson Hayes early on in the game as well. So first quarter, Lakers outscored 3330. So the Lakers get that 30 points in the quarter that we talk about all the time. Deal is they give up 33 to the Utah Jazz. So Luca, you know, played fine.

You say, okay, here's Luca trying to figure things out with his new teammates and his team. And remember this about Luca, not to make excuses, Luca's trying to get his legs underneath him. Whether he was playing for the Dallas Mavericks or playing for the Lakers, he would look about the same because he's not in basketball shape. He has not played in an NBA game since December 25th, except for a couple nights ago when he was limited minutes. Well, you know, tonight, same situation. You don't see him huffing and puffing, but at the same time, he doesn't look NBA fast. And so for Luca, who actually plays the game where it looks like he's almost in slow motion that he sees everything all the time, it just wasn't working out for him.

wasn't working out for almost everybody. But in seven and a half minutes, Luke had five points, two rebounds, two assists. Lakers at that time, when he comes out of the game, Lakers were actually up 1917. And here comes Alex Lynn. Alex Lynn enters the game. If you aren't aware, Alex Lynn was the player they'd designed,

can't figure that one out. I understand he's supposed to a rim stopper. He's a big guy. Alex Lynn's stats are not good. I mean, he averages a little bit more than a point of game and a rebound a game, and yet he was the best big man option that the Lakers could find.

disappointing. I mean, when you watch Alex Lynn tonight, number one, there's just nothing there. There's nothing there offensively. There's nothing there defensively. Now, 31 years old, he's doing the best he can. Look, when the Lakers signed Alex Lynn, I pulled up my Linsanity shirt. And I said, all right, I'm ready to go. Let's bring back Lins sanity. Guess what? Through that shirt right in the trash. Alex Linn stinks. He's not any good and he's not a kind of guy that the Lakers are going to be able to depend on. A matter of fact, I'll be shocked if he's on the roster when this team makes a run to the playoffs. There are other players, the Lakers could have actually keep on this starting or in this lineup, in this rotation,

that can help the team out a lot more. So here we go, Dalton Connect. That was strange to see Dalton Connect back in. As I said in the last show, I'm a Dalton Connect fan. I wanted things to kind of work out the way they did. I wanted Dalton Connect back. The problem is Dalton Connect, even though he's a professional basketball player, his feelings were hurt.

He told JJ Redick, you know, I need time. I need time. So I was shocked to see that he was even going tonight. I thought that time was going to be through the All-Star break, back, ready to go, look, you're part of the team. Well, he gets in the game and Niels' his first three-pointer, absolutely loved it, you know, and so hopefully Dalton Connect is one of those guys that can go back to what the Lakers, you know, had them and the way they were using them where a guy that can shoot three is a guy that actually can jump. You get the lot

passes to them, but, you know, here's a team, and this is the NBA where it is set up for three pointers and where their Dalton Connect spell somebody else, but look at the, really the boost that they have gotten from Gabe Vincent shooting threes and coming in. If Dalton Connect can do that and play the way he's been playing. This team all of a sudden is very deep. Lakers in the first quarter, they shot 42%, 46 from three point range. Look, they, Lakers free throws were disappointing. I mean, we can go through this and the Lakers free throws were extremely disappointing tonight. Lakers didn't miss in 13 free throws. It started in the first quarter and you're seeing guys, they're missing two at a time. And it's like, you got to be kidding me. I mean, one thing to see,

you know, your guys like an Alex Lund let's say missing free throws. But when you see Luca missing two, a row is bizarre, right? And you're seeing Austin Reeves struggle and you're seeing LeBron struggle and you're seeing everybody's struggle. You lose 13. And so this team lost by 12. Not saying that if they made those, they would have won the game, but it would have kept them in the game. You wouldn't have been going to your bench and saying it's garbage time with basically 60% of the fourth quarter left to play. You can't make your free throws. It's insane. This is pro basketball. You know, high school level, that's not good. And so I can't tell you why that happens. The free throw line has not changed for any of these guys in their entire life.

There's no reason why these guys aren't making their free throws. It doesn't make any sense at all. But the Lakers sure is hell, couldn't do it. Lakers again struggled. Jazz shot 48% the first quarter, 33% from three point range. Lakers were led in the quarter. Rui had seven. Rebounds again down.

One of those things we spoke about for the last few weeks is Rui would like to see the points. We would also like to see the rebounds and the size and the defense. It needs to be picked up. Ruiz defense, especially with the lack of a big man in the middle to basically enforce the basket, Ruy has to come through it and has to grab a couple more rebounds than what he's doing right now. Ruiz, seven points, Luca had five, Shake Milton. He had five off the bench. Kind of interesting there, shake Milton with five off the bench.

You didn't see Shake Milton until garbage time. I know whatever it was, the coaching staff and JJ Reddick did not see a reason why Shake Milton should have got more playing time. Shake Milton's known as, by the way, a plus defender, but yet at the same time, it wasn't going. The Jazz were led by Lori Markin, and he was great, 14 points in the first quarter. If you recall on the show, he was one of those guys two, three months ago. I was pushing, I'd like to see the Lakers kind of pull off a trade for him. He's long. We've all seen him play in Southern California for a long time because he played at the University of Arizona. Always been a very good player, but a guy that hasn't been on really good teams. I think he would have thrived with the Lakers, but that ship has sailed. It's not going to happen. Rebounds. Lakers out rebound the Jazz in the first quarter.

16 and 14 assist lakers of nine jazz up nine bench points lakers of 11 jazz of two turnovers lakers two and jazz one so turnover numbers usually we get on that a lot as far as laker turnovers and you expect to see a little bit more especially when you have kind of a new offense it's not austin reves running the point you kind of expect basically lebron luka and austin rives to try and figure out the spacing where guys are going to be so the turnovers are going to happen until these guys get adjusted to what they're trying to do. Lakers finished the quarter, you know, down by by three, but they missed four free throws in that quarter.

And again, shooting 33% from the free throw line in the first. That was a sign of bad things to come. It never really got better for the Lakers in that situation. Second quarter, jazz outscore the Lakers again, 3126. The Jazz jumped out to a 3730 lead in the second quarter. Lakers then went on to a nine-nothing scoring run. but that was over five minutes. It wasn't like the Lakers were playing great basketball.

It was just the Jazz were playing terrible at that moment. So even though the Lakers went on a 9-0 scorn run, it took five minutes to get those nine points. The Jazz just happened not to do anything. The Lakers should have had a bigger lead than even that scoring run, but it got bad. The Jazz immediately took over. They go on a 15 to 3 scoring run,

taking at 52, 42, 42, a 327 remaining in the half. And then with 226 remaining, the Jazz take a 56-45 lead on Walker Kessler's dunk. He's the guy that Laker fans have wanted for the longest time. You can see why the Utah Jazz weren't willing to deal him. He's a great player. I mean, he's very good, especially a team that doesn't have really anyone to contend with him, you know, underneath the basket, especially with Jackson Hayes, leaving with a face injury. Lakers forced to call a timeout with 2.26 remaining in the second quarter.

LeBron James comes out, nails two, three-pointers. The Jazz finished the quarter with a run, and they go to the halftime leading 64-56, outscoring the Lakers in the second quarter again, 3126. So again, things not going the Lakers way. And, you know, frustrating for all of us that the Lakers, you know, didn't play better at the same time. This is one of those where it's going to be tough for a while for the Lakers to think about this one for a week. At least I hope they think about it because I know us as Laker fans going,

that was a gimmee game that you let get away and you hope in the final standings come out. You aren't going back to tonight's game on a game that the Lakers should have won. All right. I want to mention the people over at Wayfair. Look, after the holiday hustle, there's nothing like giving your home a little TLC. I always find that decluttering, refreshing, all the space that I have in my home, I like to get back to routine and then start brand new for the new year. So if you're like me, whether you're tidying up, cleaning out, and you just want new space to look a little bit better, Wayfair is everything you need all within your budget. I'm currently looking for furniture. They have a huge selection that makes it easy to find things to basically style and fit my budget. So my favorite part is the free and hassle-free delivery, even on the larger items.

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All you have to do is go to Wafer.com right now. That's W-A-Y-F-A-R dot com, Wayfair, every style, every home. Very easy to use. All right. So this is like your team against struggling tonight. kind of want your comments as well want to hear what you have to think we'll uh we'll fire through some of these comments and we'll look at the halftime stats and see where things went bad for the lakers also some of the ideas of what you think the lakers are going to look like with luka and lebron

at the same time has lucca given you what you want in the first two games austin rew's terrible shooting night we'll get into his night as well but at the same time this laker team what are you most concerned about and what are you looking forward to want to hear at all so again i'll take your comments right there and I want to hear what you have to say. BC, man, the very first comment, embarrassing. I couldn't agree more. BC, I could not agree more. Straight out embarrassing the way the Lakers played today.

Craig, good to see you as well. Lynn looked like he had cement in his shoes. He did. He did. Lynn looked terrible. I mean, this was the best option to pick up. Look, he's not going to get any better. If you've watched him for a long time, he's been a disappointing in the NBA forever.

Remember, this guy was a lottery pick. Again, I think he averages 1.7 points, 1.7 rebounds. That's ridiculous, a guy that size. I tell you what, I'm 6.3, and I'm telling right now I can get more than one, two rebounds a game. That's insane to me. He does not fit this style of this Laker team that is going to be fast, and you've got to move up and down the court.

They have guys on the bench that I'd rather see out there than Lynn. Very disappointed that was a signing that they decided to go with there. B.C. says, trash. Yeah, here's the deal. You know, Austin Reeves has been playing great. It's a shame that Austin Reeves last game before the All-Star break looked that bad. You like to see Rui take more shots.

Yeah, I would too. You know, I would too. At the same time, I'd like to see Rui not only, you know, knocked down his three-pointers, but obviously take some pride in his defense. And that means they're putting a body on someone, sitting or fighting for those rebounds. And so Rui has done a good job the last couple games with the rebounds. And then all of a sudden, he went back to his old self.

Not having Dorian Finney Smith and Gabe Vincent, you guys agree with me. it was one of those things where it hurt this team tonight. Also, Jordan Clarkson always kills us. He does. You know, it always hurts when it's a former player that we used to see in our uniform that comes back and he hurts us. And Jordan Clarkson always does.

Just always a good night for him and, you know, good guy and everything else. But hey, you know what? They're good guys pumping gas at the Shell Station, but doesn't mean that, you know, we root for good things for him. That doesn't, they aren't on the Lakers. We weren't rooting for good things for them. So that's just the way it is. So overall, man, very disappointing night.

Luca didn't look good. Is Pasarra? Is that it, if I pronounce it correct? He didn't look great. Honestly, I just believe Luca's not in basic game shape. And I'm not talking about the shape of his body. I'm talking about his wind. When you're seeing a guy who's missing open jumpers,

missing free throws, that's coming from the legs. We all know he had a caffeinatory. So before I sit there and make any excuses for Luca, it's one of those where, you know, you expect him to play a little bit better than what he's been. At the same time, he's trying to find his way. I mean, first road trip with the team, second game, not a lot of practices with this Laker team. Luca is a star. I mean, Luca is one of the best players in this league.

I would rank them number two in the entire NBA right behind the Joker. Number three, I would put LeBron out there. I know SGA's great, but I'll take the two guys the Lakers have. I've seen LeBron in big games in the NBA finals. I've seen LeBron win gold medals when they had to go to him. and I still have faith in the 40-year-old man. So the Lakers can play a lot better. And, you know, for LeBron, even when he was watching this kid do great at the end of the game and garbage time,

you could tell he just wasn't okay with the way this team headed into the break. And we're all the same, meaning we don't care about the individual stats. We want the wins. We're at the point where we just want the wins. This is not an organization where you run up crazy big numbers, you know, throwing myself back and looking old. I mean, if you remember there's old Denver Nuggette teams in the 80s where they had, like Alex English and Kiki Vandeway, and they scored a ton of points, and yet they weren't winning NBA championships.

That's not what the Lakers are about. That's not what being a Laker fan. Championships is what it's about being a Laker fan. Craig says Austin Reeves coming off the bench. I don't disagree with that. Putting a better defensive player on the floor, I don't disagree with that. And if that means, you know, a better defensive player to basically pick up a little bit of what you're missing because you lost a couple good ones, not a bad,

idea at all. I'm for anything right now. All I know is I'm not for what I saw tonight. Tonight was embarrassing and it's not even a fact of being embarrassed, but how do you turn it on when you need to turn it on? I mean, there is no defensive stops. I can't believe it's February 12th, and we're talking about missing Jackson Hayes. I mean, when did you think we'd ever have this conversation that, oh man, it was terrible. Once we lost Jackson Hayes, it was a completely different game. Look, the Utah Jazz are bad. What happens in a new place, a really good team that can sit there and dominate the boards on a better basis than what Utah did tonight. The effort wasn't great.

Our shots weren't falling. And at the same time, why? It wasn't a back-to-back situation. They just destroyed the Utah Jazz two days ago. They knew they had one game left. So leave it all out on the court. That was horrible for a team top to bottom. That was absolutely terrible.

So very disappointing to see what the Lakers did. I know you guys are as disappointed as I am. Very frustrating the way it went. Look, so here's the deal. we'll get into how things just got worse for the Lakers. So at the half, the Lakers are down 64-56. Lakers shot 42% of the first half, 42% from three-point range as well, but 6 to 12 from the free throw line.

So they missed half their free throws right there. Jazz shot 48%, 35% from three-point range. It's just basically average basketball. It was like the Jazz were playing that great. The Lakers just weren't playing good at all. Lakers were led at the half. Luca had 13 points in 15 minutes. So as much as we might want to say,

hey, Luca didn't look like himself. Lucas 13 points in 15 minutes, minimum minutes for him. Not bad. I mean, overall, if you can sit there on average those amount of points for the minutes that you play, it's not going to be a bad time. LeBron James, 12 points, four rebounds, Ruy, 12 points, two rebounds in the first half. Frustrating.

Austin Reeves, look, he only had four points in the half on one of eight shooting, but he added nine assists. So he was trying to do more. We know even though shots weren't falling, who still was able to get nine assists. Lori Markinen had 17 for the Jazz to lead them at the half rebounds. This is where the numbers switched a lot from the first quarter to what you saw at halftime. Jazz out rebounded the Lakers 32-22.

Assists. Lakers at 17. Jazz had 16. Jazz had 16. Bench points. Lakers had 18. Of course, the Lakers are going to have more bench points because they were thin. They had to sit there and use everybody they had in a uniform. Jazz only had eight at that time. Turnovers, Lakers had six. Jazz had seven. So they weren't dying in situations where the Lakers normally would struggle. They just weren't able to basically connect on their baskets. So points scored off turnovers. Lakers at seven.

Jazz had nine points in the paint. Jazz had 24 Lakers at 16 against the Utah Jazz. Like what the heck? Now, look, this is the fourth time. Remember, the Lakers had a run. They had four times where they had led the other team by 20 points in the first half. That streak has snapped. The Lakers at the half always have a great record.

They're actually 25 and four. we're leading in the half. This time, Lakers weren't leading at the half. So things obviously not going going the right way for them and disappointing, disappointing for all of us tonight. So very, very frustrating to see where the Lakers are at tonight and the way that game went. But again, I'll take more of your comments as well. But for this Laker team, you know, you want to see a little bit more. Hey, want to mention other people at Open Phone, running a small business means you're wearing a lot of hats. Your personal phone becomes your business phone. We know what that's like. And before you know it, you're juggling customer calls day in and day out.

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All right. So again, with everything going on with this Laker team, you know, can the Lakers come out? in the third quarter. Can they do anything to basically make a run? We're hoping they can make a run. Well, you know, here we are. The, the Lakers don't make a run, really. Jazz outscore the Lakers in this quarter, too. 40 to 30. They give up 40 points in the third quarter. Like, what was said in half time about trying to pick this thing up a little bit? Six 14 left in the third quarter, jazz went on a nine-nothing scored and run to give them a 14-point lead. We know we're in trouble. 552. The jazz are on 11, nothing run. Jazz lead 8569.

511 remaining in the third quarter. Jazz go on an 18 to 2 run to give them a 92.71 lead. 405 remaining. Luca picked up his fifth foul. Things aren't looking good for the Lakers. Jazz were up 9471 and the jazz outscore the Lakers again in the third quarter, 40 to 30. Again, I can't stop saying it's the Utah Jazz. The Jazz stink. You know, how does this happen to this Laker team. How does this happen? So again, where are we as far as a team? What do we do do when we don't have Jackson Hayes? What do when we do? We don't have a big man. Alex Lynn is not the answer. And at the same time, you have to figure out a better way to shift defensively. You have to find a way to knock down your shots. This is the kind of team where we might not

play great defense the rest of the year. But at the same time, can you keep scoring with this Laker offense? And this Laker team, you know, obviously has an offense that other people don't have. So can you sit there and score with this Laker team? It doesn't matter when we aren't knocking shots down. So basically the Lakers didn't do anything that should make them dangerous tonight. And that becomes extremely frustrating. This Laker team struggled all the way through. Very, very, very frustrating overall.

Lakers, again, let's look at the rebounds. Utah out rebounded the Lakers, 48, 48 rebounds the Lakers had. Okay, so, I mean, the Utah Jazz had that, that's crazy. The Utah Jazz scored 54 points in the paint tonight. Unbelievable. So to me, it always comes down on an effort deal. Put a rear end on a guy. Push them out of the way.

Make sure that ball falls to you. Shake Milton ended up with nine points off the bench. That was a positive. But when you look at the garbage time, what did it mean? Brony had six and seven minutes. Again, those are just, you know, basically nothing numbers. These are all nothing numbers for the Lakers. They don't matter.

Dalton Connect played when actually the Lakers were trying to do. something, Dalton Connect with 10 points in 17 minutes. Again, for me, I was happy to see Dalton Connect back on the court. He was three of seven from the field. And then he made, you know, basically those are all three point attempts. So he made three, three pointers. Nice to see number four back on the court. And, you know, when you look at Alex Lynn tonight, 22 minutes, two of five shooting,

you got four points. Again, not impressive. Five rebounds, excuse me, seven rebounds for him. That's actually a good night. for him. What you saw tonight is frustrated to ours with Alex Lynn, and I was with Alex Lynn. That was actually one of his better nights. That shows

he how bad his average has been. He's not that kind of player. I just don't understand the reasoning of putting him in. Do you see how many times he was open and Laker players wouldn't pass it to him knowing that he's not an offensive threat? They'd go, okay, I'm about to pass it to him because this guy standing there wearing a Laker jersey and they're like, no,

we're going to find somebody else. There was just nothing there. So, high point man for the Lakers tonight was Rui. We had 19 points in 30 minutes. LeBron had 18 points in 34 minutes. Rui, again, three rebounds. Three rebounds in 30 minutes. How does that happen?

You know, how does that happen? You got two sides of the court to grab some rebounds. You're basically supposed to be the power forward on this team, but you aren't grabbing rebounds. So Rui was 8 of 15 on the night, shot better than the 50% from the field. But, man, let's see something else besides just offense. Let's be a complete player.

LeBron, not his best game either. LeBron, 18 points, only shot the ball 13 times tonight for LeBron. He was 6 to 13. He made four three-pointers. But LeBron with six rebound, seven assists. You know, LeBron's always active, you know, so LeBron finishes 18 points, six rebounds, seven assists. Not a great night for LeBron, but in the kind of game where you're getting blown out and they take LeBron out early. And basically, that's the end of the game.

Those are the kind of stats you're going to get from him. Jackson A has only played seven minutes, had four points in those seven minutes. two rebounds, by the way, in those seven minutes for Jackson A's, one less than Rui, who played 30 minutes. Luca on the night played 23 minutes. Remember, played only 24 the other night. Luca, in 23 minutes, had 16 points, four assists, four rebounds, also had the personal fouls, which were up to five, which was kind of crazy. So, Austin Reeves, this is where so many people are talking about. Austin Reeves, just one of those nights where you just couldn't shoot.

You couldn't shoot in the first half, what did we say? It was one of eight. in the first half finished four or 15 for the game only made one out of 10 three point attempts. But assists, he ended up with 11. Nine of those came in the first half. So Austin Reeves did nothing to basically carry this team in the second half when they needed a spark, especially knowing Jackson Hays is out and other offensive guys that gave Vincent Dorian Finney Smith. They're out.

So that's it. Jake Milton again, nine points off the bench, Dalton Connect, 10 off the bench. That was great. and the rest of the guy's kind of garbage time. Jared Vanderbilt, if he never shot again, I'd be 100% fine with it. Just let him focus on his defense. Vanderbilt 17 minutes, three points.

He's just not an offensive threat. It never has been six rebounds for him tonight, and he's there for defense. He's basically there for defense. And for the Lakers, you know, one of those where the only quarter they outscored the Utah Jazz was in the fourth quarter, 33, 27, and that was garbage time. None of that meant a thing, okay?

Jazz ended up winning that game by 12 points. But in reality, that game would have been, you know, a lot worse that both teams tried all the way to the very end. Jazz went garbage time. Lakers went garbage time. And there just wasn't a lot there. So frustrating for this team. Frustrating that we now have to wait a week to get the bad taste out of our mouth as it get ready to host the Charlotte Hornets. Again, All-Star break coming up on this weekend.

If you're a fan of the All-Star game, I say every year I'm not going to watch the All-Star game. I watch it every year. Just one of those guys that falls into it. I remember the days when I loved it, when I used to actually have the VCR, and I would pull out the tape, and I would record Magic playing point guard for the West, Isaiah playing point guard for the East, seeing Larry Bird and Michael Jordan on the East and Dr. Jay and thought it was awesome. And then I'm looking at Kareem, and I'm looking at James Worthy and Magic, and they're wearing this cool All-Star uniforms. I loved it. What it is now is absolutely ridiculous. All-Star Weekend, which used to be one of my favorite events in the 80s has turned into my least favorite events.

but man, I'm a sucker. I'm like Charlie Brown. I come back and I watch it every year, kicking that football and then, you know, swinging miss. I fall for it thinking it's going to be different, but it never really is. So I'll be watching it Sunday night.

I'm sure some of you will watch it as well just because he missed a little bit of basketball. We'll be rooting for LeBron as he's our Laker representative. Let's take a look at the standings before we get out of here. Again, we won't be a show until next Wednesday when the Lakers host the Hornets. We want the Lakers to be in the top four. This loss hurt.

Just a lot of hurt the Lakers a little bit tonight. Oklahoma City, Thunder, there's still in first place. They won seven in a row. Oklahoma City, there's no stop in the thunder right now. Memphis Grizzlies, as of right now, are still in second place. Memphis won eight of their last 10, Denver Nuggets, third place. Nuggets will pass Memphis soon, eventually at least. Nuggets have won eight games in a row playing great basketball.

Houston Rockets who have won four of their last 10. Rockets have now moved in the four spot. Lakers with the win tonight would have remained in the four. spot, but instead they follow the five spot. Lakers are 11 and a half games behind Oklahoma City. Lakers are 32 and 20 on the year. And Clippers in the sixth spot are 29 and 23. Ranning out the playoffs, you have Minnesota 7 seed. You have Sacramento, the 8th seed, Dallas, the 9th seed. Speaking of Dallas, Golden State and 10 seed, Dallas is done. Dallas is in a lot of trouble. I feel bad for Anthony Davis, but when you're talking that he's out six to eight weeks,

if Dallas continues to struggle and they've had so many injuries, not just Anthony Davis, if they struggle, they aren't going to bring Anthony Davis back at all this year. It's going to be to the point where, hey, you know what? It's the middle of February. He got hurt. Anthony Davis, six to eight weeks of being injured. What's the point of trying to rush them back if this team's not a playoff team? Right now, then you're just saying, what are we going to do in the lottery?

And for the Mavericks, for ownership, for their front office, people are really, really upset. And it's a bad situation in Dallas. Amazing what can happen in a matter of just a couple of weeks. Phoenix Suns are out of the playoff picture. San Antonio got embarrassed tonight. They're out of the playoff picture, Portland, Utah, New Orleans Pelicans. Well, good news for the Utah Jazz tonight. With the win tonight, Utah Jazz are now not the worst team in the West.

The Jazz now have 13 wins. New Orleans Pelicans, they have 12 wins. So there you go. Top seeds in the East, and we've spoken about this most of the year. There are two teams in the East. You have to be concerned about it. It's Cleveland and Boston. The Knicks aren't the real deal.

The Pacers aren't the real deal. and Milwaukee Bucks at the five seed aren't impressive enough. Milwaukee, believe or not, with 29 and 24 on the season, that's playing in the east. So for the West is where it's all at. The best teams are in the West, and overall, we'll see what the Lakers can do, making that run. Again, there are 60, excuse me, there are 30 games remaining after the All-Star break. So the Lakers have 16 of those at home, 14 of those on the road, and they have to figure this out, and how they're going to get LeBron and Luca to play their best basketball together.

Again, final score tonight, 131, 119. Brian and Andy are talking Laker basketball with you every single day on Los Angeles, locked on, you know, obviously Lakers. And again, I'm here for the post game. So anytime you want to talk Laker basketball for me after a game, I appreciate the comments. So thanks so much to everybody that wants to join. You can catch every one of these shows, every show on Locked On,

anywhere you get your podcast. Again, my name is Dave Palais. My name's in the bottom corner. You can sit there and follow me on social media or you can direct message me. I'm happy to talk Laker Basket. with you off there as well. So have a great night, everybody. Enjoy All-Star weekend and we'll see you next Wednesday when the Lakers host the Charlotte Hornets. Have a great night.